eco-officiency blog » green

Consider CarShare Programs to Enchance Alternative Transportation Options

eco-officiency — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 05:00:13 +0000

Many offices are encouraging their employees to carpool or take public transportation to work. Public transportation or carpooling may work well to get to the office, but can be a hindrance when trying to get to outside meetings during the day. Consider joining a carshare that will alleviate the need to have a company car but support alternative transportation programs within your company. Most carshare programs have online or phone reservation systems. Cars are usually parked in convenient areas around urban areas.

Here are some recommended carshare programs;

eGo CarShare is a carshare service located in the greater Boulder/Denver area.
ZipCar is a national carshare program. They have locations in most major U.S. Cities and around University campuses.
CarSharing.net is a directory of other local carsharing companies across the U.S.

ShareGreen: Green Business Best Practises

eco-officiency — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 06:00:54 +0000

Walmart Canada recently launched a website, ShareGreen, that offers case studies on green business best practices within Canada.

Case studies have already been posted from companies such as Nestle Water, Stonyfield Farms, Tetra Pak, SC Johnson and Kimblerly-Clark. All companies are encouraged to share their stories and case studies on how they have improved energy, waste, green products and solution, and employee engagement.

Case studies are organized by industry sector such as food and beverage, manufacturing, professional services, resource extraction and retail industries, with plans to add further industries for the government, tourism and transportation sectors.

Take a look and see what other companies are doing to be more green and eco-conscious in their business.

Make One New Green Committment for your New Year Resolution

eco-officiency — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:02:56 +0000

It’s true for all of us. We all want to be more green but each step requires us to do something differently which is not always easy. If we each committed to just one new thing for the year, we would make a powerful difference as a collective in our nation.

We will have more success with our commitments if we are as specific as we can be to the action and behavior we would like to change. Instead of committing to just purchasing less, make a firm dollar commitment. Based on what you usually spend on ‘luxury’ or ‘disposable’ items, make a dollar commitment to spend only $200 for the year, or whatever amount makes sense for you and your family. Then, determine how you are going to track your commitment and have some way to measure it. With the example of purchasing less, you would know by the amount of money you spend.

This year, I have committed to driving less and my goal is to reduce my usual 12,000 miles per year down to 9,000 miles for the year. Although that doesn’t seem to be a lot, that is essentially not driving my car 3 months out of the entire year! My plan is to use a combination of alternative transportation methods such as my bike, the bus and try to carpool more often. How will I know if I am successful? Well, I will track my miles monthly and the goal is to reduce each month by 250 miles. I’ll keep you posted on my progress during the year.

Again, make your new resolution a specific action and determine the way you will track it. When you do this, the likelihood of success will go up dramatically.

Share with me what your green commitment will be for the year.